Yeah, I'm looking at it more from a player-pool perspective. Increasing the number of players regularly playing Merge SNGs would arguably offer the best benefit to skilled players, at the moment. Having a less-swingy game (especially the super-turbos) might retain more players in the pool (e.g., DoNs are relatively popular).

Things are in research, but this isn't a very straightforward issue, I am getting further information later this month of where things are at, but the short answer is that I'm follow Merge on this.

I agree and at this point all the comments have gone in for the development of the client upgrade including lobby; unfortunately Black Friday basically screwed the development timeline in this case. Again, I'll have a better idea of the progress by the month's end.

You are able to change the tournament tickets to cash minus the admin fee, I'd just ask that you have at least 20 for the first time, after that, just ask whenever because: its a manual process, but after the first 20, its a relatively quick process (because now can be batch processed- basically now I can just do a mass expiration of even 3 tickets after the first 20 are done). If you chose to take double up coupons, then I'll consolidate them into the largest denominations but if you really love playing a certain level, then let me know.

General points about the payout structures:
Merge has their own logic/rational for how they set it up, but as you can see, it's a subjective issue, but I'm sure by the end of the summer, there will be many more revisions towards this as many tournaments haven't been changed or revised in over a couple of years.

Is there any way we can get these superturbo tournaments fixed? I see it's been brought up before, but still not seeing any change, and not getting any positive feedback from support either. It's very simple, just change the $1.10super turbo that begins at 6:30pm (17:30 heropoker time) to the exact structure of the $3.30super turbo which begins at 8pm(19:00 heropoker time) Which only allows late registration through the rebuy period (25mins.) and does NOT allow people to buy into the tournament on the money bubble, without even given a chance for an add-on! This is a major error that should not be ignored, and has effected my decision to stop playing it until its fixed. There's no other rebuy tournaments on heropoker and or any other poker site in the world that allows late registration after the add-on period. Its far from even beyond absurd.

Maybe but the last thing i want is something to encourage more nitty play. Personally player pool issue aside i would prefer that turbos paid out 100 percent to first place. It would eliminate people in 3rd place from pray folding. In turbos to me anything that encourages action=good anything that encourages more folding=bad.

Am i really the only one that finds the tourney lobby a little irritating ?

Dave it would be great if Merge gets rid of antes in PLO8 MTTs! There is absolutely no reason to have them in this particular form of poker. In fact AFAIK Merge is the only poker network IN THE ENTIRE WORLD that has antes in PLO8 MTTs.

This is my top merge network priority, I'm on it and lets see what the response is, I'll just hammer it and see what happens.

I'm sure many people will agree with you, no doubt, but it will be upgraded, the question is when.

I'll look into this and get an opinion as to why it was set up like this.

hey maybe a dumb question here but is there some way i can do a p2p transfer with someone reputable (me sending first) to trade my paypal for heropoker $ (at 1:1) or something? don't have visa and don't want to mess around with western union.

i thought i remembered seeing an x-fer thread somewhere but i can't find it, either way i'm just looking to do $100.

Your going to have a hard time finding this, 1 because its against paypals rules, and 2 because someone can just dispute the charge 2 weeks later and get their money back.

Still nothing on this. I just sent a second email to both just in case.

ok thanks for the headsup

Dave--

I can see that once you bust from a tournament you are given a few minutes to "berate" other players. But why is there no all-time observer chat? Is there a way you can enable all observers to chat at all tables at any time? Maybe a special rule that you need at least a certain amount of money in your account to chat at the table or something?

Rob, sorry for the delay- I think we're all sorted now if you are the same Rob- sorry about the first email on the 12th- totally my error, was in transit and I had missed marking a few emails properly.

No, its was how it was set up, but it's a function that a lot of players want to see added as well to do some railing etc. This is on my list to bring up in person.
Cheers,
Dave

Do bonus levels ever reset? For instance I am level Recruit 38. Do the levels ever revert back to the beginning after like a year?

send me a PM sonofgod

observer chat is dumb. Just a bunch of bums begging for money. Not that i'm not nearly broke myself. If they aren't begging their just being plain rude.

Points decay starting at level 250. It was asked earlier in the thread (not sure if answered) whether once a level is attained do you retain it in the face of decay like in Diablo. I would hope so! It would be pretty demoralizing otherwise. Being only Farmer 12, I don't think I will have an opportunity to test this for some time yet.

Hey guys, yes tat is right, points decay starting at level 250, but previous to that, you keep your level as is, and you'll never decay past a level. So if you hit 251, you're 251 forever. Cheers,
Dave

How come the ALL-DAY NON-STOP $1 $3 $5 PLO SitnGo Freeroll are restricted to those countries only??

I'll answer it in 2 parts:
Part 1
Of course US existing players can join these promotions, but why it wasn't stated in there was because Hero does not accept new US players any longer since May 25th, 2011. So I didn't want to add to the confusion and our existing players are quite active so they'd notice right away anyway in the client and give a click through.

Part2
If you are part of a country that you think should be included, but is not, then just PM me. But there are a number of factors related to why those countries were picked and others excluded, which I'll be explaining in my next post, but suffice to say, we are mainly just targeting players from mature markets who may have curiosity in PLO, whereas many emerging markets would be still learn NLH. But conversely, to simply open it to every market, really wouldn't be a smart option either. In order for this to be meaningful, we had to be selective.

That being said, in business development things are always done in phases, so perhaps in a few months, a South American promotion will be done or just EU or Eastern Europe etc.

Cheers,
David

****ABOUT HERO PLO $1,$2&$5 Training******

Now as a boutique site, we really want to focus on something different and for us that means aiming for being both a private Swiss bank and Four Seasons level of service; but also to really be true to our brand as Hero Poker and we really want to grow with our players. So this 'training' it pointing towards that.

This promotion will run all summer long as a trial and if it continues to be a benefit to our players, then we'll simply continue it as is.

So what makes this different is that, Hero Poker really wants to give you, the player, a chance at learning PLO and we think this format does give the best overall exposure towards that.

FORMATS
$1 prize pool, 18 seats, 6 max tables, top 3 payout (50/30/20%)
Blinds 12min
Starting Stack 5000
Up to 5 simultaneous tables going

$3 prize pool, 30 seat, 6 max tables, top 3 payout (50/30/20%)
Blinds 12min
Starting Stack 5000
Up to 4 simultaneous tables going

$5 prize pool, 36 seat, 6 max tables, top 3 payout (50/30/20%)
Blinds 10mins
Starting Stack 5000
Up to 3 simultaneous tables going


RATIONAL BEHIND THE FORMAT:
The prize pool is 'small' as it is on going, theoretically this is available to a player any time they want, providing it fills up. But over the course of 24 hours 7 days a week, it isn't a small amount, but it's not huge, but reasonable.

There needs to be some type of prizepool for motivation and proper play in the later stages or else players wouldn't try and no one would play properly at all and it would just be useless, because the point of the format is provide PLO hand exposure.

HAND EXPOSURE:
Simply put, PLO isn't NHL and the game flows differently and as a poker player, you simply need to play x number of hands as a start or no theory or teaching is going to really make sense and you need to try to make sense of what you are doing, instead of just randomly shoving or calling.

In this respect, the blinds are 10-12mins, which is reasonable, but what is unreasonable is a 5000 starting stack for a sitngo let along a 'freeroll'. But, what is good about a 5000 starting stack is that for the first 3 levels you basically can play the game as if it were a cash game because the blinds and bet sizes don't really make a dent in your stack. So it gives you the flexibility to play in different styles. Of course, this may not be the best way to win the tournament, but it does give you some leeway before you need to really buckle down and concern about the stage of the sitngo.

At 5000 starting stack, you are able to make mistakes and continue to play; now many players would argue that this is counter productive because with a shorter stack it forces you to concentrate more; I'd counter to say, this is absolutely true, but with a shorter starting stack it also forces you to place more on sitngo/tournament strategy than simply just playing the table, your position and cards. I would say that this promotion is more simply for general exposure and as players get better they will naturally move into limits that they feel comfortable in whether it be cash, tournaments or sitngos.

PRIZE POOL
The reason why it is just top 3 is basically I feel, poker is a game of skill and even if you play for recreation, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't try to get better. Additionally, this isn't a 'freeroll' where we want the maximum number of people to feel good about themselves and then deposit something because they won. Rather, the key aspects is that this is a sitngo; if you really want this money, if you really want to be better, hell, you can play for the next 45 days, every day and minute and when you win, I guarantee it will mean something.

In terms of why is there a cap on the simultaneous games, 1. is because of human nature, if it is simply left open then people will try to multi-table 24 sitngos (not that isn't is possible, but it kinda is pointless if you are just learning PLO) and that people may just lose interest and burn out after 1 day, and 2. I need to do things in phases & trials to see what is reasonable and be responsible to the business and also prevent abuse.

MOVING FORWARD
We will be adding in Micro PLO games with grantees throughout the day so that even with just .11, 22, & .33 cents, you'll be able to quickly increase that. So the SitnGos are there to give you opportunity to train and entry into the micro tournaments, rather than just being an end to itself. And we'll just grow and adjust from there.

AMAZON GAMES
If players, regardless of gender, say, its unfair or what's the point, I'd have to say that much of the Amazon restricted games will be for PLO and not NLH. I think PLO is still a relatively wide open field and that it is still anyone's game to beat, unlike NLH which just has so much talent and history now than unless you grind or go bum hunting, it's just that hard in terms of competition. I'd simply like to give a bit more opportunity to the women and I'd like Hero Poker to assist in that and think it's is good for the game. I would like to see women be a real force in poker rather than just eye candy (i.e. poker hot) or part of some sleazy outdated marketing advertisement.

COUNTRY RESTRICTIONS
Basically Hero Poker made a decision to approach the mature poker market, so that is the short answer to the issue of country restrictions. But this was made on a number of different levels/considerations and wasn't just random countries. But keep in mind that simply opening it up with no restrictions would have also be ridiculous as well because the point of the promotion would have likely been missed. Hero Poker is not a grab for players, we are looking to develop things step by step where the players we do have and the players we acquire, we can provide them a good playing environment in what we do.

*Micro tournaments will be up by mid-week
*No blind increase HUSNGS will be up by mid-week

Thanks & Regards,
David
Hero Poker CEO


Cliffs:
-structure meant for PLO exposure more than anything else via the sitngo format
-more mirco guarantee tournaments will be added by mid-week
-Hero Amazon is trying to provide more opportunities for women for mainly PLO
-country restriction is mainly a business decision as well as to maintain the integrity of the promotion

I like it David you have done a good job. Ive been fortunate enough to win a few of them (the previous 18 player 5$ format) and it has certainly helped me work on my PLO game.

I also agree that NLH is almost too talent rich right now and PLO brings skill and edges back into the game so I'm excited to have a place to practice other than play money.

Thanks!

Can you explain the logic behind not allowing $33 tickets to be used in the daily 6k/9k freezeout? It seems I can only use a $33 ticket (won in a $2 r/a satellite) in $33 rebuy/addon tournaments. That's a little weird!

Why you got womens only tables man? This is a mental game, women shouldnt be partitioned off at all. I get it that they arent unless they choose to be, but still. Plus they are terrible and and its not fair to take the fish out of the player pool.